I’m back – Achieving a Work-Life Balance

April 27, 2009

After a very long absence due to family illnesses, I have returned. I hope to restart this blog and resume my place as a guide to creating a work-life balance now that my own life has settled down. I hope to see my readers back as well.

I do have something to report. During my absence here my family radically altered our lives once again to find that elusive work-life balance. My husband left his stressful, job with long hours as an engineer in the private sector and returned to his first place of employment – a state agency. Three years ago, we were both lulled by the siren song of high pay opportunities and he left his job at the state agency for the private sector. Three years later, he had seen the sun come up at his office more times than either of us care to think about, he worked six days a week and thought about work 24/7. Our lives were unravelling.

We looked around at friends who are also engineers and realized it would be years before he saw any relief, if he ever did. We had to really focus on whether the money was worth him being an absentee father and husband in order to join the ranks of the upper middle class. Our decision….the money wasn’t worth what we were having to give up.

Today my husband is back at the state agency. He will never earn six figures. His job isn’t sexy or glamorous. But he goes to work at 7 am and comes home at 4 pm. Without exception. I have my husband back. Our son has his father back. And the state has a damn fine engineer.

This means we will never be able to move into the tonier part of town…but we like our small home in our modest middle class neighborhood. I will never have granite counter-tops or a pool in my back yard nor will I be able to quit my own job to devote my time to writing…but my question is…why should I be able to pursue my dreams at the expense of someone else, namely the man I love? Everything requires sacrifice, who better for me to sacrifice my dreams for but the man I love and with whom I intend to spend my life? And I still get to write, I just have to juggle it with my job.

So there you are.. I put my money where my mouth is and you know what? Life is sweet.